Baseball Heritage Museum to stick at Colonial Arcade

It might have been easier for Bob Zimmer to move The Baseball Heritage Museum after a flood last month caused significant damage to a place built on memories, and a deep passion for America's pastime.

Instead, Zimmer, who is also involved in the revitalization of League Park, and the museum he founded in 1999 will stay put in the Colonial Arcade.

A busted pipe in the ceiling destroyed some memorabilia — the baseball and radio broadcast exhibit on the lower level was hit the hardest — but the shows will go on, even if space is at a premium for the time being.

“We're working hard on trying to do recovery,” Zimmer said. “We have some positive things going on. Management (at the Arcade) is working hard to help us. It's going to be a long process.

“We're going to have 4,000 square feet of space shut down for the next few months. We have about a thousand square feet still operating. We're still doing programs, still functioning.”

On April 8, the museum will be part of a celebration centered on the Indians' home opener against the Yankees.

One hundred bicycle riders will gather at the West Side Market and travel to League Park to check on the progress of the construction. From there, they will head downtown to The Baseball Heritage Museum, then bike to Progressive Field for the late-afternoon opener.

Zimmer said there will be an auction to raise money for the museum that day, and organizer Bob Polk also will be raising funds for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland and the Cleveland Baseball Federation.

There are more events on the museum's summer schedule, including a Satchel Paige exhibit July 6.

“Our hope and intention is to stay,” Zimmer said of the museum, which has been hit by two floods since April 2012. “We're also working on the League Park project. We believe strongly that the main museum needs to be downtown.”

Zimmer said he doesn't have a figure for the financial damage the museum sustained, but his home to many artifacts was more about emotions than finances.

“The (insurance) adjuster was there for about four days (last week),” Zimmer said. “The radio and broadcast exhibit was pretty much under water. The baseball exhibit lost a number of things that were stored in a closet. I'm not sure what the number is, but how do you really determine a number for this type of stuff?”

You don't.

Instead, you depend on the support of the baseball purists and others who want the museum to stay put.

Zimmer said the museum hopes to get some disaster relief from the National Endowment for Humanities, a government grant that typically is awarded to cultural institutions such as museums, archives, libraries, universities, and public television and radio stations.

“We're still operating and functioning,” Zimmer said.

Hopefully, that won't change.

And neither should the city that hosts Zimmer's treasures from Major League Baseball and the Negro Leagues.

Monsters center Brad Malone displays the jersey the American Hockey League team will wear for Browns Night on Saturday at Quicken Loans Arena.Photo credit: COURTESY LAKE ERIE MONSTERS

Monsters change colors

The Lake Erie Monsters are going all out for Browns Night at Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday.

The American Hockey League team's third annual event will feature appearances from Browns players Joe Haden, Greg Little, Jordan Norwood, Jason Pinkston and Billy Winn. Former Browns such as Hanford Dixon and Bob Golic also will be on hand.

Perhaps more importantly, the team will be sporting these sweet brown and orange jerseys for the 7:30 p.m. game against the Texas Stars. Fans will be able to bid on the jerseys during a silent auction on the concourse, with the proceeds going to the Monsters Community Fund.

Seen, but not heard

The NFL scouting combine is under way in Indianapolis, and according to reports, Browns president Joe Banner and vice president of player personnel Mike Lombardi won't be among the many league executives who make themselves available to the media. According to ESPN Cleveland's Tony Grossi, the Browns' new men in charge aren't among the 45 NFL coaches and executives scheduled to appear in the combine media room the next three days.

Banner and Lombardi don't owe the media anything, obviously, but they're certainly well aware that Browns fans treat every offseason day as if it's the beginning or end of their optimism for the coming season.

Obviously, it's more important that the team's primary decision makers are in Indy doing their homework. Banner and Lombardi will be doing just that.

They'll also have time to address the media. Heck, it wasn't that long ago that Lombardi was a member of the media.

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